ISRAELI art and Klezmer music will fill the air at Oxford’s second annual Jewish street fair today.

While parliamentary candidates anxiously await election results, Broad Street will be turned into a celebration of the city’s centuries old Jewish culture from 3pm til 7pm.

As well as delicious delicacies on sale and lessons in making Jewish bread, there will be Shabbat Kiddush cup-making workshops, candle-making and pony rides for children.

The fair will also host an authentic scribe trained to write a Torah scroll on parchment, giving a live demonstration of his 3,000-yearold craft.

It is being organised by Oxford Chabad, a university-centred educational group serving the Jewish population of Oxford. Director Rabbi Eli Brackman said: “The purpose of the fair is to celebrate the full scope of Jewish culture, history and tradition through an informative, fun and educational festival, demonstrating the vibrancy and relevance of Jewish life in the 21st century in the UK and around the world, as well as pride in its long history over centuries in Oxford.”

The party also ties in with the public celebrations of Jewish life that take place each year around the world on the same day, marking the Jewish holiday Lag Baomer.

Translated literally “the 33rd day” and situated between the Jewish holiday of Passover and Shavuot it is the day on which, according to Jewish tradition, Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.

The Jewish community of Oxford is one of the oldest in the UK dating back nearly a thousand years.

Jews are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, living primarily in St Aldate’s, then called Great Jewry, with the Jewish cemetery on the site of the Botanic Garden in Rose Lane.

The modern Jewish community dates back to 1842 with the synagogue based in Jericho, and grew considerably once Jews were allowed to study at Oxford in 1856.

The size of the current Jewish population in Oxford, including the student and faculty community, is estimated to be about 1,500.

Today’s street fair, with 12 stalls, will be run by Jewish students at the university and volunteers from the city.

A 12-panel exhibition at the fair will tell the history of the Jews of Oxford from medieval times until the present day.

The Chabad of Oxford, established in 1988, is based in Cowley Road but recently expanded to incorporate a Jewish student and community centre, with the Oxford Kosher Cafe in George Street.

The fair is sponsored by the Oxford Chabad, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Oxford City Council and Flaggs College Store.